


Not So Bad

by spinninginfinity



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 09:33:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1184656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinninginfinity/pseuds/spinninginfinity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A poorly-timed power outage disrupts Donna's Valentine's plans.</p>
<p>
  <i>‘We have food; we even have candlelight.’</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not So Bad

‘Okay,’ Donna calls, shutting down her computer and picking up her coat and purse. ‘I’m leaving.’

There’s no response from Josh’s office, so she goes and stands in the doorway.

‘Josh.’

‘Hm,’ he responds absently, eyes on the note in front of him.

‘I’m leaving now.’

‘Come here and read this,’ he says, his eyes still on the paper. ‘Does this language seem a little off to you?’

‘Josh.’

‘What?’

She sighs, stepping fully into the office and closing the door over behind her. ‘You didn’t hear me say I was leaving?’

‘You’re leaving?’ he asks, blinking up at her. ‘Wow, um. You look—you look nice. You got plans tonight?’

‘It’s Valentine’s Day,’ she reminds him.

‘Yeah, but you’re not seeing anybody. Wait.’ Josh sits up in his chair, suddenly fully focused on her. ‘Are you seeing anybody?’

‘No. Some friends and I are going for dinner.’

He slouches in his chair again. ‘You can do that any time.’

‘Well, I can’t, because I work for you, but that’s a whole other thing. I’m taking off, okay?’

He blows out a long breath. ‘Yeah, fine.’

‘Great. Don’t stay here all n—’

She breaks off when the office lights suddenly cut out.

‘Did you turn the light out?’ Josh asks.

‘I’m standing in the middle of the room! The bulb must have blown.’ She opens the door, peering out into the bullpen. ‘They’ve gone out there as well. Power outage?’

‘It’ll come back on in a second,’ he says confidently, and then, after the second has passed: ‘Come on! Seriously? It’s the White House; surely there should be emergency power that just fires up straight away when this happens!’

‘Give them a moment, Josh.’

‘I can’t work in these conditions,’ he grumbles.

‘In the pitch black? I’m pretty sure no one’s expecting you to.’

‘I’ve got stuff to do.’

Her eyes having adjusted to the little bit of light coming in through the window, Donna puts her coat and purse down and feels her way over to Josh’s desk.

‘What are you doing?’ he asks.

‘There’s a flashlight in your bottom drawer,’ she tells him, kneeling down next to his seat and running her palm across the front of the desk until she finds the handle.

‘Well, here; let me—’

‘Ow!’

‘Sorry!’

She tugs the drawer open. ‘Do you want to try not punching me while I’m down here?’

‘I was helping!’ he exclaims. ‘I didn’t do it on purpose!’

‘I know. Just… sit still for a second, okay?’

‘Got it.’ There’s silence for a moment as she rifles through the drawer. ‘Is your arm okay?’

‘That wasn’t my arm.’ 

‘Then what—oh!’

She presses her lips together, glad he can’t see her look of amusement. ‘Josh?’

‘Oh,’ he squeaks again. He clears his throat. ‘Oh, um. Well. I’m sorry. About that. That was pretty, um—’

‘I forgive you.’

‘Good.’ She hears him exhale heavily. ‘That’s good.’

‘Found it!’ she cries triumphantly, pulling the flashlight out. ‘And… it’s not working. You got any batteries lying around?’

‘I didn’t know I had the flashlight lying around.’

‘Mr. Lyman, Ms. Moss?’ comes a voice from the door.

Donna jumps; Josh yelps in alarm.

‘Sorry,’ comes the voice. A thin beam of light shines into the room and Donna recognizes the man in the doorway as Pete Morris, a secret service agent. ‘I didn’t mean to scare you. We’re not sure why the backup power generator hasn’t fired. We’re crashed until we can get the power up and running, make sure nothing’s wrong. You guys just sit tight, okay?’

‘Oh, no, no, Pete!’ Donna stands up. ‘I have plans. I was literally just about to leave.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Pete says. ‘You know the rules: no one goes in or out.’

She pulls a face. ‘You can’t make an exception? It’s Valentine’s Day.’

‘Sorry,’ Pete says again, genuinely sounding it. ‘Listen, Donna, any guy who deserves you isn’t going to be bothered about this once you explain what happened. I’ll let you know as soon as I know what’s going on, okay?’

‘“Any guy who deserves you”,’ Josh mumbles, once Pete’s gone and they’re plunged back into darkness.

‘What?’ Donna demands.

‘I don’t know… you don’t think he sounded a little… flirty?’

‘So what if he did?’ She narrows her eyes, even though he can’t see her. ‘Is this a weird jealousy thing?’

‘No!’

Satisfied that it is indeed a weird jealousy thing, she opts to make him squirm a little. ‘Are you saying you don’t agree with him?’ she asks.

‘Agree with him about what?’

‘That any guy who deserves me won’t be bothered by my not being there.’

‘Well, you’re not meeting a guy,’ Josh points out, after a moment of silence.

‘The point still stands.’

‘Of course I agree with him,’ he says abruptly. ‘Of course I—hey, can we do anything about how dark it is in here?’

After going through all of Josh’s drawers and, she’s sure, creating a mess she’s glad she can’t see, they manage to turn up a handful of menorah candles sent by Josh’s mother possibly years ago, and they snare a lighter from Pete when he returns a little while later to tell them he doesn’t know anything more.

‘Wow, I feel so much better informed,’ Josh remarks, once Pete’s left.

Donna rolls her eyes, rolling blobs of sticky tack between her fingers and putting them on the desk so she can press the candles into them. ‘If he hadn’t come back you’d have been pissed off at the lack of updates. Anyway, you’ve always liked Pete just fine, so why start having a problem with him now?’ She lights the small row of candles, the flickering light revealing the sulky expression on his face.

‘I don’t have a problem with Pete,’ he insists. ‘I think he’s a perfectly nice guy. You should date him if you want.’

She sits down in the chair on the other side of the desk. ‘I don’t want.’

‘Well. Okay then.’ He pulls the paper he was reading earlier toward him.

‘You can’t work in this light,’ Donna says patiently.

‘No,’ Josh says, pushing the paper away again. He sighs, tilting back on the chair’s back legs. ‘You want some food? I have chips around here somewhere and, uh... fruit, I think.’

She raises her eyebrows. ‘The fruit I bought you with your lunch?’

‘No?’ he tries. ‘I’m going to eat it now!’

She reaches over and steals the chips. He doesn’t try to stop her. The minutes pass mostly in comfortable silence; she graciously offers some of his chips back to him and he makes several attempts to read his memo before finally admitting defeat.

‘I’m sorry,’ he says at length.

‘For what?’ she asks, licking salt off her fingers.

He sighs. ‘I don’t know. Ruining your Valentine’s plans, mostly.’

‘You don’t control electricity, Josh.’

He drums his fingers against the desk. ‘Yeah, but if I’d let you go a couple minutes earlier, you’d be in a restaurant with your friends right now.’

‘It’s okay,’ she assures him. ‘Anyway, this is a perfectly passable Valentine’s evening. We have food; we even have candlelight.’

‘You’re right. It’s totally the same.’

Donna crumples the chip packet and tosses it into the wastebasket. ‘Well, if you’re gonna be a downer about it…’ She smiles. ‘Really, Josh. It’s not so bad. And my friends won’t mind, and you’re right, we can go for drinks any night.’

‘Yeah, but it’s Valentine’s. You say it’s fine, but I don’t think you imagined spending it with your boss.’

‘Yeah, well, what about you? I don’t think you envisioned spending Valentine’s with your assistant.’

‘I did, actually.’ Josh’s eyes widen. ‘I meant in the sense that I thought we’d be working.’

She grins. ‘Got it. I meant in an ideal world.’

Josh is silent for a moment before answering. ‘No, I think you’re right. This isn’t so bad.’

She opens her mouth and then closes it again, and is saved from answering by the lights flicking back on. She blinks in the sudden harsh brightness, the row of candles looking odd now where they stand on Josh’s desk.

‘We’re fine,’ Pete says, sticking his head around the door. 

‘What was it?’ Donna asks, and then answers, as one with Josh and Pete, ‘False alarm.’

‘Yeah.’ Pete smiles apologetically as he leaves. ‘Have a nice evening, guys.’

Josh clears his throat, sticking his hands in his pockets. ‘Well. You should go meet your friends.’

‘I can stay,’ Donna offers. ‘I’m pretty late already. I can stay and help you with your stuff. They’ll understand.’

‘No.’ He shakes his head. ‘No, it’s fine.’

She smiles, pulling on her coat and picking her purse up. ‘Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

‘Sure. Have a nice time.’

She’s almost at the door out to the lobby when she hears him speak again.

‘Donna?’

‘Yeah?’ she asks, turning to look at him.

He’s standing just outside his office, hand braced against the frame. ‘Ah. Earlier, when I apologized, I was also saying sorry for insulting you before.’

She shakes her head, smiling. ‘Josh, that’s not even the most you’ve put your foot in your mouth today. I wasn’t angry with you.’

‘Yeah. Okay.’ He rubs the back of his neck. ‘I did agree with Pete, though. With what he said. If you were meeting a guy he’d be mad to end it because you were a little late on Valentine’s Day.’

She smiles a little wider. ‘That’s sweet.’

‘Yeah. I just didn’t want you to think I thought he was wrong.’ Josh flushes and points into his office. ‘I’m going to go do some work now. Have a nice evening.’

‘You too.’ She hitches her purse strap a little higher on her shoulder. ‘Hey. Maybe one year we’ll both have actual romantic Valentine’s plans.’

‘Yeah,’ Josh says. ‘Maybe.’

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback welcome and appreciated as always!


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